Google has always maintained a policy of tracking user behavior, but Big Brother has become much more insidious in their efforts to ‘provide a more meaningful user experience’ by tracking and collecting every single thing you do!

[o]nce Google’s new unified privacy policy takes effect all data already collected about you, including search queries, sites visited, age, gender and location will be gathered and assigned to your online identity represented by your Gmail and YouTube accounts. After the policy takes effect you are not allowed to opt out without abandoning Google altogether. But now before the policy takes effect, you have the option of deleting your Google Web History by modifying your settings so that Google is unable to associate data collected about you with your Gmail or YouTube accounts.

I’m not saying that you should run for the hills, but you should be wary of any mass collection protocol that you can only opt out of by completely abandoning the platform.

If you haven’t yet opted out, I just did (I was completely lunching and should have done it earlier), I’d suggest you do so.

Here are a few easy steps for keeping Big Brother from tracking you like a fugitive.